Pietila did not regress in points per game by the way, Kero and DJ actually both increased in goals which is improvement, and it's pretty apparent to me on why both Petan and this team struggled from last year. Reason number one being Jujar Khaira who assisted on over half of Petans goals last year and created a tremendous amount of time and space for Petan that was very apparently lacking this year. He was also a major reason, along with Steven Seigo, why the power play operated at 21% compared to 15% this year (along with very little creativity or movement).
Can you honestly expect any better results from a team that lost possibly their most dominant forward from last year, who's captain played banged up since game one because he didn't want to end his year with surgery, who's 3 best defensemen are freshman (and all but one of the rest sat the stands for either short or long periods of time throughout the year) and can't get consistency from either of their starting goaltenders?
They were a team that was five forwards deep for their top six, a few defensemen and a consistent goaltender short of being a good team. They were predicted fourth by the coaches (just going on a limb but I want to say the coaches poll has been fairly accurate on predicting tech's finishes in the past, typically within a place or two, granted it's been a relatively easy prediction), they lost fourth by one point, got fifth, and lost in the playoffs to the team that beat them out of fourth. How is this under achieving? Maybe it's unrealistic expectations.
They met expectations and possibly overachieved IMO with the loss of Khaira, and early season injuries to Blake and DJ. In college hockey a coach is essentially the coach and GM as he's responsible for the talent pipeline as well. In my opinion, from following tech's recruiting for the past 15 years, this is by far the most talent that tech has ever assembled in their system, which is a credit to the GM. I can forsee Tech finally having a solid six D corps in 2-3 years , which Tech has not had in the past 20 years. We'll see how it pans out but I'd be surprised if there isn't improvement. Regarding entertainment value, there is no comparison in watching these Pearson teams compared to the Russell era. Regarding goaltending, I'd not be surprised to see Kero as their starter at some point next year if Copley can't get it together. From what I've heard Phillips is a good as gone and if Winches? didnt' get playing time this year with basically a wide open door at times, I really can't see him threatening next year. So worst case Kero's number two but Copleys been inconsistent for two years now.
